So in the rare instances where Bri and I get to hang out, cooking is always one of the things we do together. We wanted to bake a cake together, and it just made sense to do mini lunchbox cakes, since then we could have more cakes that way. One particular trend I have been…
Tag: spongecake
Matcha-Red Bean Financiers
Whenever I bake a financier, I like to make a joke that I am financier(which I am, as a person who technically works in a financial role/has had prior finance/accounting experience) making a financier. Unless you’re super familiar with French cuisine, you might not even know what a financier is! And no worries, you’re not…
Strawberry Shortcake Chiffon Sandwiches
I can’t tell if I am late to the whole chiffon cake sandwich craze or not, but I can tell you that I am pretty obsessed with the concept! Aa chiffon cake is traditionally baked in a round cake pan with a little chimney running through it – the chimney allows for even air and…
Chinese Bakery Strawberry Cake
My friend Ann would tell me time and time again about her favorite cake being a Chinese Bakery Strawberry Cake. Personally, I grew up on Taiwanese Bakery Black Forest Cake, but that’s an entire recipe for another time! I wanted to try my hand at a super soft and light spongecake with whipped cream and…
“Present Box” Petit Gateau
Before you ask, these little egg nog-cranberry present boxes are my modern, gluten-free interpretation of a Christmas cake. Christmas Cake, at least in Japanese culture, are soft spongecakes with cream and usually strawberries, just to capture this red and white aesthetic. I wanted to take the red and white aesthetic, along with some more traditionally…
Lil Chickie Mango Puddings
I have an awkward confession: I hated mango as a child. Something about fruits with a scratchy, fibrous texture that just did not agree with me back then – 8 year old Fred was looking at you too, pineapple. Because of that, I never really understood was mangos tasted like until I was maybe around…
Yuzu-Castella Strawberry Shortcake
One of my favorite childhood memories growing up was coming back from a long day at school, and being greeted by my mom with some sort of baked good from the local Taiwanese bakery. Sometimes it was cheesecake, other times, mont blanc, but one particular favorite of mine is castella. Castella is a fluffy sponge…
Vanilla Bean Boston Cream Pie
When I think about Boston Cream Pie, I just think about college. Going to school in a city full of history like Boston, I cannot help but think of that aforementioned classic American dessert. Layers of fluffy vanilla cake, a vanilla pastry cream, and chocolate ganache. Depending on the rendition, there are also almonds encrusting…
Hazelnut baumkuchen with whipped nama chocolate
Whenever Christmas rolls around, I feel like the typical cakes you would see are the yule logs or roll cakes with the meringue mushrooms on top. Or some kind of cake with lots of powdered sugar on it, and some sort of Santa-themed decoration. Not trying to rag on those kinds of cakes, as I…
Chocolate checkerboard cake
So I actually made this cake for a co-worker’s birthday – her name is Kristina and she is an incredibly kindhearted person and an extremely hardworking sales manager. During the pandemic, when we were extremely understaffed, Kristina literally held down the fort, despite that meaning she had to work 12 hour days for months. Since…
Matcha and cream roll cake
So I actually made this cake for my mom’s birthday, but I figured that the green color just made it perfect for St. Patrick’s and March, so I held off on posting it until then. The unique thing about this roll cake compared to other ones I have done in the past is that the…
Black cacao tiramisu: a petit gateau
The first time I ever worked with black cacao was actually at Milkbar, when I had some downtime to test whatever I wanted. I stumbled upon a small container of black cacao powder, and I was really curious. I opened it, sniffed it a little, and it had this earthy, but fragrant aroma. It was…
Cafe de olla cake
When I was doing research on Latin cuisine, I came across an interesting beverage called cafe de olla. It is an earthy coffee drink with spices, namely cinnamon, anise, and clove, sometimes orange, in it that is normally served in a clay cup. It sounded like a lot of beautiful flavors, to be honest, and…
London Fog Boston Cream Pie
So I actually made this dessert was my entry item for the “Great EatWith Bake-Off” as a part of EatWith(a dining-serving company that Bri and I partner with to do our pop-up dinners)’s social media event just to keep users engaged. The premise, inspired obviously from the “Great British Baking Show” is that 5 of…
Voices of the forest: a layer cake
I really wanted to make another Opera cake, but I didn’t want to be too repetitive or just fall back on the same flavors. So I changed it up…slightly. Instead of coffee, I went with barley tea instead. I love barley tea. It’s something I grew up drinking in Taiwan during the summers! It’s refreshing,…
Nexus: a ruby chocolate entremet
I was originally going to do a rose, ruby chocolate, and pistachio tiramisu when I was conceptualizing this dessert, but then I thought about the presentation, and how I really didn’t want it to look too similar to my dreaming of springtime dessert. So instead, I opted for an entremet instead. The flavor combination of…
Mixed Berry Opera cake
I made this cake with my friend Adrienne just because I’m still trying to convince her to audition for season 11 of MasterChef and I wanted to see how quickly she can pick up arguably a tricky cake to make. Ever since my first Opera cake, I wanted to do another rendition, but using more…
Gateau Opera
So Gateau Opera is one of those desserts that I have read a lot about, but never really bothered to try making on my own. I have made the sponge, jaconde, before, and obviously, I have made ganache before. But the other filling, which is a coffee infused French buttercream, not so much. For those…
Pistachio-lemon-blueberry layer cake
This cake sort of was the result of utilizing leftover/surplus ingredients in our house. It was made for a family gathering, and because we had a TON of lemons in our house that we needed to get rid of, this cake kind of was a huge no-brainer. I love making olive oil and lemon cakes,…
Thai tea-black sesame mousse cake
I really just made this dessert because I wanted to. It was such a perfect dessert for Halloween too, just because of the color scheme, but it can also represent the fall as well, I guess? I went with black sesame jaconde sponge, Thai tea syrup, black sesame mousse, Thai tea Bavarian cream, and black…
Freddy's Harajuku 